Bulloo Rural Services is a unique program aimed at bridging the divide between Council and landholders around wild dog management.
Rural Services manager Donna Hobbs developed the program from the ground up following a suggestion from Bulloo Mayor John Ferguson the disconnect between Council and landholders needed to be resolved.
Donna Hobbs said Council had twice submitted applications for exclusion fencing when three properties expressed interest but found they were ineligible.
The properties weren’t adjoining each other and as such didn’t qualify for funding under the QFPI exclusion fencing programs, which requires three or more properties to form a cluster.
Two properties have since erected their privately funded exclusion cells and a third is underway.
“For anybody who needs an example of exclusion fencing, you can see how the Glasson family on Picarilli have gone ahead with their production and quality sheep. It is a credit to the family and how hard they’ve worked.
“You see so much in the media about the government money for these fences but here those hard-working genuine people who could have benefited from it weren’t able to access it. They went ahead anyway and have seen success from what they have done.
“We are not going to get sheep back here without the fences.”
Mark and Tay Luckraft operate an earthmoving business and also help run the family-owned Yakara Station at Thargomindah.
“We have exclusion fencing with a neighbour and we also connect to the wild dog barrier fence on our boundary – on our sheep country we run two plain electric wires on a six wire fence,” Tay said.
She said the exclusion fencing and coordinated baiting programs resulted in a lamb marking of 110 per cent in their Dorper flock in 2021.
Image: Dick O’Connell, right, Wombula Station, explains the construction of his privately funded exclusion fence to Council’s Rural Lands Officer James Theuerkauf and Thargomindah Station owner, Adam Klein.
This article was first published in The Fence magazine.